What a Year
by rhapsodybree
Summary: A glimpse into twelve months of the O'Callaghan and Brady families.
1. Dawn

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except my own creations.

* * *

The arrival of their son was much like their first journey together: nothing seemed to go right, everything went wrong, but it all came out okay in the end.

The power had gone out when Anna woke in the wee hours of the morning feeling the first of many contractions to come.

Shaking her husband's shoulder, Declan almost broke a leg as he hurried from bed and stumbled on the stairs trying to gather up everything they needed.

The expectant parents seated in the car ready to head to the hospital, it failed to turn over.

Anna gripped the dashboard in pain as Declan stood in the drizzling rain and tinkered with the engine. Sweat lined her brow when the car finally turned over and he took a seat. "Okay," he swallowed. "Let's do this."

Anna gritted her teeth. "Let's."

The long, winding roads had never seemed so long and winding than that morning in the weak dawn light.

Declan kept shooting glances at his wife, his anxiety increasing at every grunt of pain. His attention split, he almost slammed into a herd of cows.

Anna moaned at the abrupt stopping action. Leaning back in her seat, she was unable to form words, panting as she pressed her hands to the side of her distended belly.

Declan was already climbing out of the car, a half apology on his lips. "I'll get them to move," he promised.

Watching his pathetic attempts to do so, Anna struggled out of the car. Opening her mouth to encourage him, she gasped when a sharp pain ripped across her swollen abdomen.

Gripping the bonnet, she rocked her body backward and forward as she keened.

The pain barely passing, she looked up to find her husband there. "My waters broke."

Declan looked stupidly at the wet ground and then back at his wife before finally snapping into action. "Let's get you back home."

She whimpered as he helped her around the door and eased her into passenger seat. She gripped his shirt, not letting him move as she rode out her latest contraction.

Pressing a kiss to her brow the minute it ended, Declan sprinted around to the driver side.

Putting the car in reverse, bracing his arm on the headrest, he started driving backward erratically. He almost crashed when Anna suddenly reached out and gripped his arm.

"Stop the car!"

He obeyed immediately. Sitting in the middle of the road, he turned his attention to his wife. Her gaze locked on his, pain lining her features. "The baby is coming," she panted.

"Now?!"

"Yes, nowww..." she screamed.

"Okay."

"No, it's not okay!"

In the middle of nowhere, on a deserted road in drizzling rain, Anna Callaghan gripped the stone wall and screamed, pushed, shouted abuse at her husband and gave birth to a son.

Declan had tears in his eyes as he knelt between his wife's legs and caught the red squalling bundle that was his child.

Cutting the umbilical cord and wrapping his crying son in his shirt, Declan couldn't stop smiling as he looked at his wife. The exhausted Anna was ungracefully propped up against the wall, but instantly reached out of her arms.

Placing their newborn baby in her arms, Declan took a seat close next to her on the damp ground. "Nothing's ever easy with you, is it Bob?"

She just smiled at him beatifically.

As dawn streaked across the sky, clouds giving way to streaks of colour, basking in the love and relief of his parents, Brady Callaghan's cries were silenced.

* * *

_There could only ever be one name for their son: Brady. It was their very history was summed up in one word._


	2. Dusk

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except my own creations.

* * *

It was dusk as Anna marched into the bedroom, brandishing a white stick. "How do you explain this?"

Declan grinned from his position on the bed, Brady on his chest. "It's Irish twins!"

"Did you have to be such an overachiever?" muttered Anna as she slid down onto the bed.

Not waiting for an answer, she lay down beside him, resting a soft hand on the back of their sleeping six month old.

"I'm becoming a bloody cliché."

"That may be so," he agreed, "but at least you're my cliché."

He smothered any response with a kiss.

Quite effective that.

* * *

_A 100 word bridging chapter._


	3. Daybreak

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except my own creations.

* * *

Jeremy Sloane flipped open the patient's file. Disregarding the name, his eyes sped over the medical report, his mind readily making a prognosis.

Casting an eye over the pale man on the bed, he shut the file and left the room.

"Could someone please get the next of kin in here," he demanded of no one in particular.

Twelve hours later and he picked up the file again. The patient – he spared a glance to the name this time (a one Jack Brady) – had defied all odds and made it through the night. Moving to the waiting room, he was ill-prepared for the sight that met him.

Anna Brady – his one-time girlfriend and almost fiancée – was standing there. Worry furrowed her brow, her hand slipping over her distended belly. Pregnant?

The greater shock was when a man crossed the room and approached her shortly after.

His back toward him, Jeremy realised several things at once when he turned. There was a kid in his arms and...

It was him?!

It was the guy who had driven her to Dublin.

The hand he rested on her neck spoke of possession, and he was surprised at the clench of anger he felt when Anna looked up at him with an expression of gratitude.

She'd never done that damsel in distress act with him before.

Tightening his grip on the file, he stepped forward and brushed all of his emotion off to the side with ease, becoming the doctor he knew he was, ready to advise that whilst in a critical condition her father, with time, should recover.

* * *

The run in with Jeremy had been unexpected, but a week later Anna found that the only emotion she felt to her ex-boyfriend was her gratitude that her father was going to be okay.

She'd barely left his side in the week that followed and now thirty seven weeks pregnant and unable to fly home, Anna had accepted the fact that she would be giving birth to her second child in the States.

Strolling down the streets with Declan a week later, their pace was leisurely.

An emotional Anna couldn't help the smile that spread over her face as she turned a corner. Tugging on their intertwined hands, she guided her husband over to an imposing facade.

"That was my dream place to live," she said breathlessly. "The Davenport."

Declan looked up at the polished exterior, his face carefully smooth as he placed a hand on her shoulder. "And now you live in a dingy pub in Ireland."

She clasped his fingers firmly and refused to be baited as she admired the cold architecture, so different to what she knew - and loved.

"Should I give the two of you a moment?" Declan kidded, though it wasn't without a degree of concern.

Anna must have picked up on it – she really was a perceptive thing, his wife – for she turned to him and looked straight into his eyes. "Nope, I'm good."

Brushing her fingers over the fine hair of the dozing Brady strapped to his father's chest, she tugged her husband in for a kiss.

"Thank you for coming," she said softly when they parted, brushing her fingers over his lips. "And staying."

"Where else was I going to be?" he responded bewildered as they commenced walking again.

She slapped his shoulder. "Just take the compliment will you!"

"Yes ma'am."

The Davenport remaining standing as the O'Callaghan family laughed and moved on.

* * *

_Mairead O'Callaghan was born two weeks and three days later..._

_... in a hospital._


End file.
